Illusions in the Fog
by The Queen of Asgard
Summary: Hannah and Jesse Isbell were as tight as two siblings could be. They had always grown up with stories of worlds that are different than ours where monsters lurk in the shadows, waiting to gobble them up. They were just stories until their train crashes in the middle of the woods and they have to face the Slenderman. Can the two siblings escape? Or will they be trapped forever?


_Prologue:_

_ Ever since the Isbell children were big enough to understand stories and words, they had been subjugated to the stories of terror and wonder their parents would tell them stories about creatures that existed between our world and plains of terror in another realm in another time and space and how sometimes, the veils between the worlds would unravel and the two would become reality. The children would shiver in delighted horror as stories would fall from their parent's lips._

_ Their favorite in particular was of one called Slenderman who liked nothing more than to hunt children who ventured too far out into his woods and kill them with his tentacle appendages. They never went into much of a backstory, since it had been passed down from their own families to Hannah and Jesse._

_ However, as time went on, the stories fell on deaf ears while the children grew up. Neither could forget the horrifying stories that were told to them as children but they had to focus on their studies and their new adult lives. And so, the Isbell children found themselves at the cusp of adulthood, ready to take that final step over the threshold of the rest of their lives, never knowing that an even greater destiny lay out in front of them from beyond the shadows and fog._

* * *

"Do you have your tickets?" Dena Isbell asked worriedly, brushing off her son's jacket. The taller of the two, Jesse Isbell had bright blue eyes and shaggy blonde hair that rested on his forehead. He wore a black beanie pulled low over it and a blue windbreaker, a sweatshirt underneath. He was handsome for his age but he wanted nothing to do with girls and instead dedicated his time to computer programming.

"Yes Mom, of course we do," Hannah Isbell said reassuringly, "They're in my pocket and we'll give them to the conductor as soon as we get on the train, I promise!" Although she was the shorter of the two, Hannah was the eldest Isbell child. She looked nothing like her brother and instead had dark copper colored hair, chocolate brown eyes and a warm smile. She wore a pair of glasses and wore her hair in a pair of plaited braids, a beanie pulled over her head as well. She too wore a windbreaker but instead hers was purple and orange with a pair of skinny jeans and black combat boots.

The two had been planning this vacation for months. The two were taking a week to go up to Whitefish, Montana to go skiing at Big Mountain and participate in all sorts of fun activities that the winter landscape had to offer.

"You two will call me as soon as you arrive in Montana?" Dena reminded her elder child.

"Don't worry, Mom! We'll be fine!" Jesse said, beaming.

"For the love of crying out loud, Hannah, don't get any tickets while you're up there!" Their father Dave said with a little smile. Hannah chuckled and held out her arms for a bear hug. Her father responded and kissed the top of her head as the conductor yelled "All aboard!"

"Well, that's us," Jesse said brightly, giving both of his parents a quick squeeze, "See you in a week!"

"Don't forget to call!" Dena said quickly as the two children mounted the train and stood at the window. Within 5 minutes, the train began to move and the two lost sight of their parents when they went around a bend. Hannah looked over at Jesse and gave him a little smile.

"Well then, I guess we should find our seats!" She stated, Jesse nodding in agreement. The two had opted for a compartment instead of actual seats since both were relatively tall for their age groups and would need more room to spread out. When they finally had found their compartment, Jesse went to explore while Hannah stayed behind to play Minecraft.

"Excuse me Miss," A voice made her jump slightly. She looked up to see a man in a conductors cap standing at the doorway, his voice and eyes icy and cold, "Tickets, please."

"Oh, of course!" She rummaged through her coat pocket and pulled out a pair of the tickets, "One's for my brother. He's wandering around here somewhere."

"Oh, you mean that Jesse kid? Yeah, I met him a few minutes ago. He said that you had his ticket. Is he alright in the head?"

Hannah's temper flared slightly. She had no problem with people making fun of her quirkiness but when people said things about her little brother, she would jump into a defensive mode that made a mother grizzly bear look tame.

"He's autistic," She snapped, handing him the tickets, "He likes trains and he wants to know as much as he can about them."

"Keep him in here with you, please." The conductor said, matching Hannah's tone of voice. She stood up and looked at him square in the face, narrowing her eyes.

"He's not some fucking animal. He has just as much right to wander around that I do." She snarled, "Now, if you don't shut your mouth and leave me and my brother alone, I'll take it up with your supervisor! I don't think he'd be very happy with you messing with a veteran!"

The conductor scoffed and gave her a once over before sneering, "Have a nice trip, Miss Isbell." He made her name sound like a bad word and she instantly hated him for it. Making a note of his nametag, she made a mental note to speak to another staff member as soon as she could. She made a face at him and watched as the thick woods sped by. They wouldn't be in Montana until tomorrow morning and that gave them enough time to hang out.

She looked up and down the hallway for her little brother but saw neither hide nor hair of him. Strangely enough, all the other doors in his passageway were closed. Furrowing her brow, she exited the compartment and started down the hallway.

"Hannah!"

She turned around to see Jesse, his face pale and puckered, "What's wrong?" She asked, "Are you okay?"

"No…" He began, "There's something wrong with this train! The engine it's…"

At that very moment, a piercing shriek ran through the compartment, and the entire train bucked forward, causing Hannah and Jesse to go flying forward. Hannah landed on top of Jesse as the windows went pitch black.

"What's going on?!" She screamed over the shrieking noise.

She could see his lips moving but couldn't understand what he was saying. With another jerk backwards, Hannah went careening backwards, hitting her head against a metal doorframe. The world spun for a few moments as the train came to a jolting halt and the world went black.

* * *

Hannah opened her eyes. The train was deathly cold and all the compartment doors were open. The lights were flickering every so often so that she could see a somewhat cattywhompus train car leaning on its side. On the other side of her, she could see the slumped form of her little brother sitting against the side of the train. A dried trail of blood ran from the side of his head and Hannah's breath hitched in her throat. She scrambled over to her brother and shook his shoulder roughly.

"Jesse! Wake up please…don't be dead…" She whimpered as her brother began to stir. He opened his own eyes and looked up at her.

"What happened?" He asked softly, wincing as he moved his head, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I don't know what happened." She admitted, rubbing the side of her head, "All I know is that we crashed and now we're sitting here in the dark…ish…sort of train wreck. I don't know where anyone else is."

"I have a bad feeling about this," Jesse murmured, standing up with the help of Hannah. The two staggered towards the exit, fumbling their way to the door. When they finally reached said egress, Hannah peered outside the slightly ajar door only to see only darkness for miles. Trees grew in ever direction, thick and black and there was just a smattering of fog that drifted around their feet, making the whole thing seem ominous and rather foreboding.

"It looks like it goes on for miles!" Hannah reported back to her brother who was scouring the sides of the doors for anything of use. He finally found two flashlights and handed one to Hannah.

"Do you have any service for your phone?" He asked. Hannah pulled out her cell and held it up to the trees. A red X in the top right had indicated that she indeed had no service whatsoever. He tried his own phone but unfortunately, there was a big crack right down the center of the screen, making it impossible to see.

"Well, I wonder where we are…" Hannah began to say, stepping off the train and running her hand along the ice cold metal, "It feels like we've been here for hours. The train's as cold as a tomb."

Jesse shone his light down onto the tracks, "Look down here," He observed, stooping down to peer at the giant wheels and tracks, "The wheels are all rusted and have plants growing on them!"

"No way! We left Portland…" She checked her phone, "Two hours ago! This is impossible!" She stood up and sighed, running a hand under her hat before glancing up to peer into the fog. "Hey, Jesse…do you see that?"

Her little brother looked up and narrowed his eyes, "What are we looking at?"

She shone her light onto a tree and the two of them could see it clearly now. It was a white piece of paper, tacked to the tree like a notice for something. The two wandered over to peer at the sheet of paper only to see someone had written something on it.

"Run." Jesse said, pulling the paper off the tree, "There's more writing on the back."

Suddenly, the hair on the back of Hannah's neck stood up and she slowly turned around. There, standing about a hundred feet behind them was something so terrifying it made Hannah want to cry. "J-Jesse…" She whimpered.

"Not now, Hannah." He muttered, turning over the paper, "There's like…a journal entry on the back of this page or something…"

"JESSE!" Hannah hissed, gripping his arm so tightly he yelped. He whipped around only to see the creature now even closer.

"Oh dang!" He cried and, grabbing Hannah by the hand, took off down the train away from the creature. They ran as fast as they could through the woods, too terrified to stop, too terrified to look behind them.

Finally, after they had run for about 20 minutes did they stop to catch their breath. Hannah slumped to the ground and began to cry.

"Jesse! That's like the story Mom and Dad used to tell us when we were kids!" She sobbed, "It's really him! It's Slenderman!"

He knelt to the ground and gave his big sister a hug, "I know…I know…but how did we end up here?"

"We must have crossed over into whatever dimension that he existed in…" Hannah mused, "Oh! I don't know! The whole idea is silly!" She began to cry again. Jesse sighed and waited for his sister to calm down. "Hey, what does that paper say?"

He smoothed it down and the two began to read.

_ "December 23rd, 1921;_

_ He chose her over me today. Chose the girl who teased me, who ridiculed me, who made my life a living hell…They all will pay with their blood. He will pay with his blood. I will make sure that they all suffer for what they've done to me."_

Both looked up at the same time, "What is this?" Jessed asked in a hushed voice. Hannah shook her head and then turned her flashlight back to where they came from. Neither could see any white figure skulking through the trees. Hannah shivered and ran her hands up and down her arms.

"Did you see his face?" She whispered, closing her eyes to try and block out the memory, "His awful white face. It's just like the stories that Mom and Dad used to tell us."

Her little brother lay a hand on her shoulder, "We're gonna be okay, I promise." He said softly. Hannah opened her eyes and nodded.

"I won't let anything happen to you. I promised Mom and Dad I would keep you safe that that's exactly what I'm going to do."

* * *

**This is a gift for my younger brother who asked for the two of us to be placed inside the video game Slender. He had the idea during Christmas but it never really was formed and so I decided to write it under his careful eye. (He's actually standing behind me right now. Love this kid.) So, this is more of a pilot than anything. If I get any feedback, I'll continue on here. If not, it will just be for him! **

**Until next time!**

**Queenie**


End file.
